Bat Familiar
The Bat Familiar is a summoned bat that follows the hero around and acts as an ally. It has appeared in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, and Dawn of Sorrow, among other titles. Game specific information ''Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Alucard can summon the Bat Familiar with the '''Bat Card'. It normally flutters behind and above Alucard, following him at a sluggish pace, and when it sees an enemy, an exclamation point appears above its head and it charges toward its target, dealing minor damage. The damage appears to be Hit based. This familiar will level up as it kills enemies, just like Alucard. At higher levels, it will attack more frequently and acquire targets more often. When Alucard takes the Form of Bat, the Bat Familiar will mistake him for a possible mate, and a heart will appear over its head. Smitten, it will follow him much more closely, making it more useful (it will briefly get confused with a question mark appearing above its head when Alucard transforms back however). Also, additional bats will be summoned depending on the familiar's level (one additional bat for every 20 or so levels). If the Fire of Bat relic has been found, whenever Alucard fires off a fireball in Bat Form, any Bat Familiars following him will launch a fireball as well. The Bat Familiar has no action to match the Wing Smash ability, however. ''Castlevania: Circle of the Moon The Bat Familiar can be summoned by Nathan Graves by using the Saturn + Salamander DSS cards combination. The bat positions itself behind Nathan and moves in a short zigzag dash around this area. It will shoot a fireball forward in the current spot it is at whenever Nathan swings his whip or uses a sub-weapon, consuming 3 MP. Holding down the whip will make the bat to shoot constant fireballs every second while moving, consuming 4 MP per shot. Fireballs can't go through walls. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Soma Cruz can summon a Bat Familiar by using the Bat guardian soul, harvested from ordinary bats. It behaves similarly to the one from ''Symphony of the Night. It follows Soma closely without needing to be tricked, and the exclamation points are missing. While the Bat Familiar cannot level up in the traditional sense, Soma can strengthen the spell by acquiring more bat souls, up to level 9. At this level, using the spell will summon three Bat Familiars with higher strength than the original. Since the Bat Company soul, which allows Soma to turn into a bat, is also a guardian soul, it is not possible for the Bat Familiars to team up with a Soma-bat in Dawn of Sorrow. The enemy the Bat Familiar(s) target can be manually selected with the touch screen. ''Castlevania: Harmony of Despair As in ''Dawn of Sorrow, Soma Cruz is able to summon a Bat Familiar by using its guardian soul. Item Data Gallery SOG Bat Familiar.JPG|'Bat Familiars illustration from the ''Shinkigensha Gekka no Yasōkyoku Official Guide Familiars GoS.png|'Bat Familiar' with other familiars in Grimoire of Souls Animations SOTN Bat Familiar.gif|'Bat Familiar' from Symphony of the Night COTM Saturn + Salamander.gif|Saturn + Salamander from Circle of the Moon DOS Bat.gif|'Bat' Soul from Dawn of Sorrow Trivia *The Bat Familiar behavior while Alucard is in bat form in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, is an homage to another Konami franchise: Gradius. In that series, the Vic Viper (among other playable ships) can activate little drones called Options which will mimic the ships' movements in a tail-like formation. See also *Bat (enemy) *Bat Form *Bat Swarm and Bat Swarm (Lords of Shadow) (sub-weapons) Category:Familiar Relics Category:Familiars Category:Guardian Souls Category:Dawn of Sorrow Items Category:Dracula X Chronicles Items Category:Harmony of Despair Items Category:Symphony of the Night Items